When it comes to American English pronunciation, one common problem is the letter A.

Why is the letter A so problematic? Well….

When you are speaking American English, the letter A has three sounds; /ae/ as in black, /ey/ as in  grey and /ə/ as in mustard.

In my work teaching the American accent to international professionals, I’ve found that many people confuse the three sounds of A when they speak English.

Here are a few examples:

Pronounce these words with /ey/ as in grey

• nation
• arrange
• array

Pronounce these words with /ae/ as in black

• agile
• patent
• spam

An unstressed A will often have a schwa vowel sound

• around
• allow
• another

I use a visual tool called the Color Vowel Chart to teach these sounds.

You can read more about vowels in American English by clicking on the links below. The O means closed for comments.